Bulldogs Have Weekend Set at Reese

Apr 02, 2010

YALE HOSTS PENN, DETROIT

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The Yale men’s
lacrosse team opened the season with four straight wins and a No.
17 national ranking. The Bulldogs ran into the Ivy’s best
over the first two weeks of league play and are now 4-2 overall
(0-2 Ivy) and looking to end a small skid. The Penn Quakers (4-5,
0-2), coming off losses to three straight top 10 teams, come to
Reese Stadium for a 1:30 p.m. face-off this Saturday. An Easter
Sunday special is on tap at Reese on Sunday when the Bulldogs host
the first-ever meeting with Detroit Mercy at 1 p.m.

SERIES

The series began in 1919 and Yale has a 45-26 lead, including
24-12 at New Haven. However, Penn has taken three of the last four
games, including the last two at Reese Stadium. Yale has never
played Detroit.

LAST MEETING

Yale trailed Penn by five in the first half and by three in the
fourth quarter before making a run that netted a 14-13 OT victory
at Franklin Field last March. Michael Karwoski had five goals and
an assist, while Matt Gibson had three goals and three assists and
Gregory Mahony scored three goals. Karwoski ended the game with an
unassisted goal just 11 seconds into the extra session.

BULLDOGS ALMOST KNOCK OFF TIGERS

Six different players scored but the Bulldogs came up one shy of
No. 5 Princeton, 7-6, last Saturday before the season’s
biggest crowd at Reese Stadium. Max Rodman kept his percentage
among the national leaders by taking 10 of the 16 face-offs. The
Bulldogs had a 39-34 edge in shots, while also having a 31-26
advantage in ground balls. Goalie Johnathan Falcone made eight
saves and came very close to helping his squad pull off the upset.

ELI OFFENSE

Three Yale players have hit double digits in goals. Sophomore A
Matt Gibson has a team-high 12 goals, nine assists and 21 points.
Junior A Brian Douglass is second on the team with 11 goals and 15
points. Senior captain Brendan Gibson has 10 goals and 15 points.

BETWEEN THE PIPES

Junior goalie Johnathan Falcone, who has faced 164 shots this
season, has a 9.11 goals against average (21st in
Division I) with a .458 save percentage. He has every decision but
Andrew Brown and Peter Spaulding have also seen time in net.

FACE-OFF

Senior M Max Rodman has won 78 of 127 (61%) of his face-offs
this season and ranks fifth in the country. He has taken all but 10
of Yale’s face-offs this season.

Yale is fourth in faceoffs, 13th in ground balls (33)
and 17th in team defense (9.1) among Division I squads.

2010 HONORS

Yale sophomore Matt Gibson was named March 8 co-Ivy League
Player of the Week after an 11-point weekend in a pair of
victories. Gibson led the Elis to a 13-12 win over No. 12 UMass on
March 5 with a career-high 5-3-8.

PENN

The Quakers, coming off a 12-6 loss at Cornell, are 0-5 against
nationally ranked teams this year but had a four-game win streak
against some talented unranked squads. Rob McMullen (15-1-16) leads
Penn in goals while Corey Winkoff (9-16-25) tops the team in
points. Joe Hegener (.492, .9.08) has six of the nine decisions in
net, Chris Casey (.509, 10.57) as the others.

UDM

The Titans opened the year with six straight losses but have won
the last two games, including an 11-8 contest last weekend against
VMI. Joel Matthews leads the team with 25 goals and 32 points while
A.J. Levell (.462, 13.07) has all the decisions in goal. UDM, a
member of the MAAC, plays at Siena on Saturday before heading down
to New Haven.

IVY POWER

Four of the seven Ivy League teams are currently nationally
ranked. The league of ancient schools has won 26 of 36 non-league
games this season.

ON THE BENCH

Yale head coach Andy Shay is in his seventh season and brings a
39-47 overall record into Saturday’s contest. Shay, a
two-time captain at LeMoyne College, was part of two UMass NCAA
Quarterfinals teams as an assistant coach before coming to Yale.
Mike Murphy is the first-year Penn mentor who went to Philadelphia
after seven seasons as head coach at Haverford College.

COACH NOTES

Yale assistant Graham Niemi, a former Maryland standout, served
as head coach of Team Finland at the 2009 World
Championships… Andy Shay has coached the Irish National
team… Eli assistant Ryan Polley played basketball and
lacrosse (2nd team All-America) at Merrimack.

BULLDOG BITES

Yale is second among Ivy schools with 33 GBs per game and 38
shots… Gregory Mahony’s 14 shots vs. Lehigh are the
most for an Ivy player this year… The Blue has outscored
opponents 15-5 in third periods and have 26 more shots… Four
Yale players have game-winning goals this year… Matt
Gibson’s eight points against UMass are the third most by a
Division I player this spring and ties for the most by an Ivy
player in 2010… Fifteen Bulldogs have points this year, 13
have hit the net.

AROUND THE IVY

There were three non-league games on March 23 but just one Ivy
win, Cornell’s 12-9 decision over Stony Brook. UMass slipped
past Brown 11-10 while Duke beat Dartmouth 15-3. There were two
other league games on March 27: Cornell doubled up Penn 12-6 and
Harvard outlasted Dartmouth 13-11. The Red and Tigers have yet to
lose a league game, while Harvard has one loss and the rest of the
teams seek their first wins. The top four teams qualify for the
first Ivy League post-season tournament in May.

OH CANADA

The first two Bulldogs recruited from Canada exclusively for
lacrosse are newcomers Kirby Zdrill and Deron Dempster.

ROSTER SPREAD

The Yale roster includes players from 17 states and two
provinces. The most are from New York (9), New Jersey (5) and
Pennsylvania (4). None of the 11 members of the class of 2013 hail
from the same state or province.

REESE RENOVATIONS

The renovation of Reese Stadium, scheduled for completion this
summer, will provide a state-of –the-art facility for both
Yale lacrosse and soccer teams. The renovations include increased
stadium seating, an entry plaza, team rooms and a press box. Recent
improvements included a FieldTurf surface and improved lighting.
Reese Stadium, formerly known as the Yale Soccer-Lacrosse Stadium,
is named after former lacrosse players Jason Reese '87 and Jon
Reese '90.